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Another round of suspected U.S. airstrikes hit Yemen’s Houthis over the weekend while President Trump shared dramatic video footage that appeared to show dozens of Houthi fighters killed by the American attack.
The apparent strikes late Saturday, which this time targeted Iran-backed Houthi rebel positions in the Yemeni city of Sanaa, are the latest in the Trump administration’s intensified air campaign in the region.
The strikes are aimed at ending the Houthis’ drone and missile attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea while sending a message to the Houthis’ patron state, Iran.
Mr. Trump has given Iran until next month to reach a deal limiting its nuclear program or face the risk of direct military strikes against its own territory.
The government in Tehran seemed to brush aside Mr. Trump’s diplomatic overtures over the weekend, though regional analysts said Iran has a vested interest in maintaining the prospect of negotiations as long as possible to forestall potential U.S. or Israeli military strikes.
Mr. Trump is expected to discuss Iran’s nuclear program with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will visit the White House on Monday.
Houthi officials said two people were killed and nine others wounded in the Saturday attack, though the 25-second video shared by Mr. Trump on Truth Social appears to show dozens of people gathered before an apparent explosion.
“These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis!” the president said in his Saturday post. “They will never sink our ships again!”
In a social media post, U.S. Central Command did not share the same footage as the president. It did release new video clips from the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which U.S. Central Command said is “launching continuous operations 24/7 against Iran-backed Houthis.”
The Trump administration has launched a flurry of airstrikes against the Houthis in recent weeks. Officials said more than 200 strikes have been launched since March 15, though the details of the vast majority of those strikes remain murky.
Iran’s state-run media claimed that Houthi militants engaged in an hours-long clash with U.S. military personnel in the northern Red Sea on Saturday. Media reports late last week said the Houthis had shot down another American drone in the region.
Top administration officials have maintained that the strikes are degrading the Houthis’ capabilities, though measuring the campaign’s overall effectiveness is difficult.
The Pentagon has recently dispatched additional military assets to the region to help ramp up the effort. In addition to the Truman carrier strike group, defense officials said last week that the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, now in the Indo-Pacific, would head to the Middle East. The Associated Press, citing satellite images it viewed, reported that at least six nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombers had recently been deployed to the U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted more than 100 ships, including U.S. military vessels, with missiles and drones.
On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his nation is open to dialogue with the U.S. but only if the two nations are on an “equal footing,” a seeming rejection of the current U.S. approach.
“The Islamic republic wants dialogue from an equal position, not that they want to negotiate with Iran on the one hand and threaten it on the other,” he said, according to Iranian state-run media.
“If you want negotiations, what is the point of threatening?” Mr. Pezeshkian said. “Today, America is not only humiliating Iran, but the rest of the world as its behavior contradicts the call for negotiations.”
Iran’s nuclear program is accelerating rapidly. Analysts generally agree that Iran is racing ahead with its uranium enrichment efforts to the point that it could build a nuclear weapon in a matter of days.
Israel and the U.S. have vowed not to allow that to happen, setting the stage for potential direct military action by one or both countries if Mr. Trump’s diplomatic push fails.
As Mr. Trump’s May deadline draws closer, specialists believe Iran will try to keep the diplomatic door open.
“Iran aims to exploit Trump’s deal-making instincts and stated preference for diplomacy over war. By feigning an interest in talks, it hopes to tempt the Trump administration with the prospect of an agreement that could be less costly than a military strike,” Behnam Ben Taleblu and Janatan Sayeh, Iran program senior director and research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, respectively, wrote in a recent analysis.
“Iran seeks to strengthen this impression by revealing underground missile cities and threatening strikes against U.S. bases. In sum, Tehran’s approach aims to render Washington’s growing military posture all bark and no bite,” they wrote.
Even as Mr. Trump pushes for talks with Iran, he is using the U.S. campaign against the Houthis to put military pressure on the Pezeshkian government. Last month, after the Trump administration’s first round of airstrikes on the Houthis, the president threatened Iran directly.
“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes,” Mr. Trump said in a March Truth Social post. “If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and we won’t be nice about it!”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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